ABOUT US

THE NEWMAN BUILDING

I.O.O.F. SUNSET TEMPLE

Located on the northeast corner of Kansas Street and University Avenue, The Newman Building – I.O.O.F. Sunset Temple was built by Edward W. Newman, one of North Park’s most prolific builders in concrete construction, from which he built many local Spanish colonial style houses, and William E. Gibb, a savant in commercial construction in North Park.

The building façade was designed as a Mission revival style, comprising of round-arched windows, akin to a Roman arcade, and included faux-towers and a red-tile roof. Its interior featured an atrium on the ground floor, overlooked by a mezzanine space on its second floor.

Initially home to North Park’s first department store, called the E. N. Mudd Department Store, the structure was sold to the Odd Fellows fraternity in 1932, after the retail business suffered during the Great Depression. By 1933, the building was remodeled and renamed the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, or the I.O.O.F. Sunset Temple.